Various marine lifesaving devices are commercially available, including floating devices of different shapes and sizes, life vests comprised of rigid foam or inflatable bladders, life rafts of varying shapes and personal watercraft. Many of the available marine lifesaving devices, however, have potential disadvantages. Floating devices, for example, may be ideal for victims who involuntarily fall over board, but if said victim is in an enclosed environment, such as a closed deck on a boat, wearing said device may be more dangerous than using no safety device at all, since the victim would be unable to swim underwater to escape the closed deck. Even a prolific swimmer would be incapable of escaping from a capsized vessel, if wearing a floating device when under a closed deck of the vessel. Therefore, many flotation devices that are made of foam materials are required to be located either on open decks or with direct access to an open environment. Similarly, life jackets are required to be onboard all water vessels but life jackets are not required to be worn by federal law (except for children under 13 or in states where a lifejacket law exists). Since they are not required to be worn, unlike a seatbelt in a car, life jackets are generally stowed in compartments and other locations on a vessel that are out of sight to prevent unnecessary wear and tear or from having them blown over board. Therefore, they are not easily accessible in time of emergency.
Life rafts are another means that are frequently used in lifesaving situations when someone involuntarily goes overboard a vessel, when a vessel capsizes or sinks or other emergency situations are encountered while on a vessel. However, most life rafts are large, expensive and not easily stowed onboard vessels. They are hard to access even in emergency situations when a vessel is capsizing or sinking, unless they are readily carried out in the open. Also, many of the commercially available life rafts are difficult to assemble and cannot be used in smaller vessels. Another problem with available lifesaving devices is that they can be large, bulky and cause visual clutter. In situations where visual aesthetics are important, such as on super-yachts and other high-end, luxury watercraft, large and bulky lifesaving devices can be unseemly and undesirable.
Consequently, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art, and particularly for a more efficient way of providing an onboard, readily accessible, lifesaving flotation system.